Three men believed to be from the Sikh community were stabbed to death Sunday night in a bloody knife attack in East London, marking the sixth homicide investigation in the capital since the start of the year.
In the early hours of Sunday evening police were called to a scene of a knife attack in which three men believed to be in their 20s or 30s were stabbed to death in the Seven Kings area of East London. The three men, reported to be part of the London Sikh community, were pronounced dead at the scene.
So far a 29-year-old and a 39-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder in relation to the case.
Chief Superintendent Steve Clayman said that the stabbing came after two groups armed with knives began fighting, telling the BBC that “the parties are believed to be known to each other and the group are within the Sikh community”.
Their deaths bring the number of homicides in the capitol to six since the start of the year under the leadership of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
In a statement given on Twitter, the London Mayor blamed the surge in knife crime during his watch on “poverty, inequality and social alienation”, going on to call for a “huge increase” in funding for public services.
“There is simply no other solution to this problem”, Khan concluded.
Mr Khan’s Conservative Party challenger in the upcoming mayoral race, Shaun Bailey, wrote on Twitter that “there is no question, the Mayor has lost control of our streets”.
“We can’t be the greatest city on earth if we aren’t safe. We need a tough new approach and new leadership, urgently”, added Bailey per the Daily Mail.
Last year the homicide rate in London reached its highest level since 2008, with 149 people being murdered in the capital. The surge in the murder rate was driven by knife killings which represented the majority of killings, with 90 people being stabbed to death last year, up from 55 just five years prior.
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